Change comes to us all: after a seven-year struggle to stay at $1, The Royal Gazette will cost our readers $1.50 to purchase over the counter, starting today.

The move, among several in store as the island’s daily continues to evolve, reflects the changing nature of today’s news as much as it does global trends in costs.

The paper remains cheaper than a cup of coffee, and it still costs less than a dollar to get it delivered at home.

But our price hike is an unavoidable outcome of increased prices for materials and operations, as explained by the company’s chief executive, Jonathan Howes.

“We held off increasing the price for years, as Bermuda was in a recession,” Mr Howes said. “Unfortunately, as our costs both local and foreign continued to rise during those years, we have now had to increase the price of the paper.

“As we increase the price, we have reached out to Age Concern to offer the seniors in our community a special price to subscribe to the paper.

“Additionally, we have kept the regular subscriber price below $1 for our home delivery and home delivery subscribers also get unlimited access to our digital products and archives.”

No company likes to charge extra for its product, he said, conceding that the cost could have gone up incrementally each year to keep up with the increasing outlay for printing.

“Hindsight is 20/20, and we need to recover the cost of printing the paper from our retail pricing,” Mr Howes added.

“Globally, the newspaper industry has been under siege from digital advertising. Many newspapers around the world have closed, as they failed to monetise content in the digital age.”

The Royal Gazette will begin to phase in a porous paywall for our website over the coming months, he said.

“Digital and print subscribers will continue to have unlimited access to all our content, while registered users, who are not paying subscribers, will have limited access to premium content.”

The Royal Gazette is also excited to officially announce the launch of its tablet and phone apps. The apps are available in five platforms — iPad tablet, iPhone, Android tablet, Android phone and Android Kindle.

“These products have been available for download on to IOS and Android devices for the past nine months,” Mr Howes said.

“As we increase the price of the paper, these products will be accessible only to subscribers.”

By global standards, particularly in light of the island’s comparatively high prices, our newsstand price remains modest.

Consider the United States, where the newsstand price for The New York Times went up by 50 cents in 2012, to $2.50.

The Washington Post will put you back $2 for a weekday edition, while The Boston Globe costs $1.50 at stands within its home city, or $2 farther afield. Meanwhile, in Britain, The Times sells for £1.20 — the equivalent of $1.73. The Daily Telegraph is £1.40 and The Guardian goes for £1.80. The UK’s newest paper, The New Day, bucks the trend at 50 pence.

Vivian Sailsman, the circulation manager for The Royal Gazette, noted that readers at present can get the newspaper at home to the tune of 98 cents a day: still cheaper than the newsstand price of yesterday.

Informed last month, some distributors were less than happy to hear of the increase, he said.

“But others understand,” Mr Sailsman added. “It’s been a while since there was an increase and they are not surprised.”

The Royal Gazette has gone through nearly countless iterations since its founding in 1828.

Mr Sailsman pointed out that the paper last raised its cover price, by 25 cents, on December 1, 2008.

Dexter Smith, the Editor, said: “We appreciate that this may come as a shock to some customers, especially when we have yet fully to emerge from economic recession, but our belief is that The Royal Gazette has been of significantly greater value than $1 for some time.

“The challenge for us going forward is to continue to justify the new price while striving to provide an enriching reading and informational experience worthy of the island’s pre-eminent news source.

“With the launch of the tablet and phone apps, we are well placed to do that.”